Others were shouting “Freedom to Navalny” after the politician himself was picked up by police on his way to the protest in the stairwell of his building.

A correspondent in Saint Petersburg estimated about two hundred people detained in the centre, where demonstrators flocked to protest after authorities allowed them to gather only in a far-off spot in the north of the city.

Local media in Russia’s southern resort Sochi said 25 people were detained after attempting to rally, and OVD-Info added that about 10 arrests occurred in each Vladivostok and northern city of Norilsk.